CRISIS IN THE BALKANS

CRISIS IN THE BALKANS; From 19 Nations, Messages of Thanks, Hope and Determination

Published: April 24, 1999

Following are excerpts from comments yesterday at the opening of NATO's anniversary ceremonies by the leaders assembled in Washington as they signed a special proclamation. The comments were recorded by Federal News Service, a private agency:

William Jefferson Clinton

President of the United States

In 1949, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, the American novelist William Faulkner acknowledged the fear of nuclear holocaust that then gripped the world.

But he declared firmly that ''humanity will not merely endure, it will prevail.''

In that same year, 12 nations came here to pledge to vindicate that faith. They were North Americans and Europeans determined to build a new Europe on the ruins of the old through a mutual commitment to each other's security and freedom.

In this auditorium the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman said that NATO's fundamental aim was not to win a war that would, after all, leave Europe ravaged, but to avoid such a war, and I quote, ''by coming together strong enough to safeguard the peace.'' He was right. No member of NATO has ever been called upon to fire a shot in anger to defend an ally from attack. . . .

As we look to the future, we know that for the first time in history we have a chance to build a Europe truly undivided, peaceful and free.

But we know there are challenges to that vision -- in the fragility of new democracies, in the proliferation of deadly weapons and terrorism, and surely in the awful specter of ethnic cleansing in southeast Europe, where Mr. Milosevic, first in Croatia and Slovenia, then in Bosnia, now in Kosovo, has inflamed ancient hatreds to gain and maintain his power. He is bent on dehumanizing -- indeed destroying -- a whole people and their culture, and in the process driving his own people to deep levels of distress.

We are in Kosovo because we want to replace ethnic cleansing with tolerance and decency, violence with security, disintegration with restoration, isolation with integration into the rest of the region and the continent. . . .

This is the kind of alliance we come to this summit to reaffirm and to build for the future. . . .

Vaclav Havel

President of the Czech Republic

The fact that the former powerful strategic adversary has disappeared from the scene does not, however, mean that in the world of today, human lives, human rights, human dignity and the freedom of nations are no longer in danger. . . . It is merely necessary to identify all the new types of dangers and to learn to effectively resist them.

It is my hope that this meeting will help us to advance in this direction and will thus add strength to the idea of an equitable peace, that is, peace founded not on a violation of humanity but on the contrary, on respect for human rights and liberties.

This is the first summit of the alliance that is attended by representatives of its three new member countries, which were members of the Warsaw Pact no more than 10 years ago.

The enlargement of the alliance, which has begun with their admission, signifies the real and definitive end of the imposed division of Europe and the world, the real and definitive fall of the Iron Curtain and the real and definitive demise of the so-called Yalta Arrangement. . . .

Suleyman Demirel

President of Turkey

NATO is a success story. It is indeed the common success of the peace-loving democracies of the Euro-Atlantic area. It was achieved thanks to the ever-important trans-Atlantic link, through the preservation of the core functions of the alliance, and by providing a form of consultation and collective decision-making on issues that affect the vital interests of the allies. . . .

Within this framework, the enlargement process of the alliance has played a pivotal role. Therefore, continuation of the open-door policy in a geographically balanced manner carries utmost significance. . . .

Jacques Chirac

President of France

Fifty years ago, there was born a hope and a fear. The hope rested on the victory of the allies over Naziism, the Charter of the United Nations and then the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which constituted the absolute basis of our values. And at the same time was born the fear of another totalitarian ideology, which had spread its dominating shadow right across Europe. For part of European populations, the end of the Second World War saw one domination succeed another.

The Atlantic Alliance was founded to feed the hope and meet the fear. . . . This challenge was taken up with success, and the safety of allies was perfectly assured for 50 years. . . .

This alliance, which was forged in adversity, today is confronted with a new trial, in Kosovo, and I know that it will bring this to a successful conclusion. . . .

Aleksander Kwasniewski

President of Poland

For the Polish people, NATO's existence has always been a sign of hope: the hope of saving freedom and democracy in Europe, divided until 1989; the hope that the Iron Curtain would not last forever; the hope that as soon as Poland was able to determine its fate, it would take part in the creation of better future for itself and for the whole of the European continent.

Sixty years have passed since the outbreak of the World War II, since the shelling of Dansk and Warsaw, the time of hatred, contempt and Holocaust.